Overview of facilities

The main git server. Should be used only for pushing new commits to a repository over the SSH protocol.

anongit.kde.org

Several servers which allow read-only access to the repositories via the git:// and http:// protocols. They are requested to update when anyone pushes to a repo on git.kde.org, so it can be thought of as being always up-to-date.

Discontinued services

The following services have been discontinued. Usually their role is now provided by other systems, but they typically are missing some important features which the previous systems had. The redesign unfortunately breaks the workflow e.g. in KDevelop which is not yet adapted to the new setup. The culled systems are listed here for reference as they may well still be referenced in older documentation.

How to get read-write developer access

KDE developer accounts are managed through KDE Identity. If you already have a KDE SVN developer account, it has been imported into KDE Identity and you may use the Password Reset feature to set a password and manage your SSH public keys. If you don't have a developer account yet, you can request Developer Access in the website's menu upon registering and logging into your account.

Information For KDE Developers

To configure Git for your KDE Development environment, please see the KDE Git Configuration page on TechBase.

You can find some simple step-by-step recipes for using the KDE Git repositories on the KDE Git Recipes page on TechBase.

Overview of repository URL schemes

URL prefixes

(KDevelop 5.x users please note: If you came here via the link in KDevelop, note that KDE projects has been discontinued and replaced by Phabricator. So the neat automatic import of KDE projects no longer works and you have to do everything manually instead. Sorry!)

Personal scratch repositories are a means to start a new project or just to store your favorite .bashrc in a safe location: anything is allowed so long as it is related to KDE or your work for KDE in some way (more below).

Let Git rewrite URL prefixes

Instead of remembering the above URL prefixes, you can also put the following in your ~/.gitconfig:

By using the kde: prefix, read access will automatically happen over HTTPS, and authenticated SSH is only required for pushes. Since commits are mirrored to anongit right when you push them, you will not have to worry about anongit being outdated.

When using invent.kde.org you'll want to use a different hostname instead:

Like info above, but actually walks through the repositories to verify the information. It's much slower as a result, and should be used if info doesn't provide enough information. For example, info will list your personal scratch space only in the form of a pattern while expand can list the actual repositories located there.

The output is limited to about 20 rows. The optional regex parameter allows you to filter the listing.

Used to delete a personal clone of a project repository or a personal scratch repository. Requires the repository to be unlocked first using the unlock command. See also the D trash command as an alternative to outright and irrevocable deletion.

Commands to manage the personal trash area

Moves a repository to the personal trash area, creating an entry in the form <repository path>/<timestamp> there. The timestamps, which have second precision, make it possible to have more than one version of a repository in the trash area at the same time.

Note: Entries in the personal trash area are automatically removed after 28 days!

Commands related to repository importing

Available only to repository and system administrators, this command enables several hook scripts that git.kde.org will then execute during a push operation to the specified project repository. Importantly, it also enables write access for non-administrators, which is otherwise disabled along with the hooks scripts.

The hook scripts in question are the ones reponsible for forwarding commits to the kde-commits mailing list and CIA.vc, and for processing commit message keywords (BUG, CCMAIL, etc.) that may interact with KDE Bugzilla or cause further emails to be sent. As these hook scripts are only available to project repositories, and not to personal repositories, the command only applies to them.

After creating a new, empty project repository for you the system administators will initially disable the hook scripts so you can safely import large numbers of old commits.

Disables the hook scripts git.kde.org normally executes during a push operation to a project repository. While the hook scripts are disabled only repository administrators can push commits to a repository. Both system and repository administrators have the ability to reenable the hook scripts using the hooks enable command.

Personal repositories

Personal clones of project repositories

A personal clone of a project repository can be created using the server-side clone command on the command line:

ssh git@git.kde.org clone <path to source repository> <clone name>

This will create a clone of the source repository at clones/<path to source repository>/<KDE Identity user name>/<clone name>. (See more examples of clone in action here.)

This scheme makes it very easy to locate all personal clones of a given project and should be preferred over making one in your personal scratch space. (In fact, the server-side clone command won't allow you to clone a project repository into your personal scratch space, but nothing technically prevents you from taking the detour of a local clone to achieve this.)

Personal clones of project repositories currently do not show up on KDE Projects, but we have plans to change that in the future. Until then, you can use cgit.kde.org to browse these repositories.

Personal scratch repositories

Personal scratch repositories are a means to start a new project or just to store your favorite .bashrc in a safe location: anything is allowed so long as it is related to KDE or your work for KDE in some way.

For the rest of this instruction, let's assume the following names:

<kde-id> - Your KDE identity user name

<repo> - Your (new) git repository name

If you start a new project then you need to create a git repository out of it before you start to push it to the scratch repositories. This is done by going into the the directory which will contain your project and type:

git init

This will convert the local directory to a git repository. This is of course not necessary if you already have a local git repo containing your project.

To make pushing to the repository convenient, it is recommended to add a remote to push to first:

git remote add origin git@git.kde.org:scratch/<kde-id>/<repo>

Now you need to create something to push. Otherwise git will refuse the next step. So it is recommended that you create a README for your project and then commit that. If you are copying in an existing (non-git) project, you should 'git add . && git commit -a' first. Afterward, you perform the first push to the repository as follows:

git push --all origin

Now your new scratch repository is created and initialized. It will take about 30 minutes until the creation of the new repository has propagated to the other tools and is visible there.

git push --all does not push tags. You can push them in a second step with

If you feel your new project is ready for the wider world and/or wish to signal that it welcomes outside contributors, you may wish to promote it to the status of a KDE Playground project. KDE Playground project repositories are located at the top-level, i.e. the repository will be moved out of your scratch space and may have to be renamed in the event of a collision with an existing repository name. KDE Playground projects are featured on KDE Projects and covered by the kde-commits mailing list (and thus CommitFilter), LXR, and EBN, unlike personal scratch repositories.

To request your scratch repository be promoted to the status of a KDE Playground project, you currently need to file a sysadmin repo request. In the future we plan to provide a fully automated facility on KDE Projects.

Note that we have deliberately decided not to allow the direct creation of KDE Playground projects; the path to existence for a KDE Playground repository project always leads through a personal scratch space first. This is to give you the power to decide whether your project is ready, and also to force you to deliberate whether it truly is.

Deleting personal repositories

A personal repository can either be deleted outright and irrevocably by using the rm command (which requires you to unlock it first to avoid accidental deletion), or you may move it to the personal trash area with the trash command.

ssh git@git.kde.org D trash scratch/<username>/<project>

Entries in the personal trash area are kept for 28 days, and can be resurrected at any moment during those 28 days by way of the restore command. You can list the current contents of your personal trash area with the list-trash command.

Requesting project migrations from KDE SVN or Gitorious.org

To get your project moved from KDE SVN or Gitorious.org to git.kde.org, you have to file a sysadmin request. It will ask you for the following information:

The name and description of the project.

The current location of the project.

Its current or intended module (e.g. playground/utils or extragear/network).

Which KDE Identity user name(s) should have admin rights to the repository and the entry on KDE Projects.

The email address that the Phabricator group for the project should send emails to.

The date and time the migration should take place (can be "asap").

When we have completed processing your request, there will be an empty repository at the chosen path (more here) that the repository administrators can push the data into. (When converting from KDE svn to git this typically involves writing a rule set, running svn-all-fast-export, and then pushing the created repository into the new git path.) Once you are done pushing everything to the repository, use the hooks enable command to enable the commit hooks and allow write access to non-administrators.

Advanced Git

Safety Precautions

With these techniques, always work on a disposable copy of the repo with all the remotes removed, so if you screw up, it doesn't really matter. Also, work on a separate branch. That way, you can usually use git reset --hard <original-branch> to get back to the starting state.

Also, make sure there are no grafts around (eg: linking to the old kdelibs history in the case of frameworks). The safest way to do this is to use fresh checkouts.

Merging repositories

The git-merge-repo script in kde-dev-scripts can merge the tree and history of one git repository into another.

First, create a commit in the source repo that removes any files you don't want to copy, and rearrange the remaining files to be as you want them to appear in the target repo. It is important the HEAD of the source and target repositories have completely disjoint trees (so you could copy one tree into the other with no file conflicts).

Then go to the root of the target repository and run

/path/to/kde-dev-scripts/git-merge-repo <path to source repo>

This will preserve commit identities (unless you filter the source repository - see below).

Note: Before pushing such a merge, talk to sysadmin (ideally on #kde-sysadmin in irc). They can temporarily disable commit hooks (like CCMAIL and BUG) so that people do not get emails about old commits.

Filtering

git filter-branch allows you to edit history. This is useful when you want to merge only a small part of one repository into another. You can trim the tree, and also alter the commit messages (for example to add information about the origin of the commits).

A combination of --tree-filter, --prune-empty and --msg-filter generally gets what you want. For example,

This example will remove everything that does not match foo.*. Note the -path argument to find that makes sure you don't delete any of git's own files. --prune-empty will remove non-merge commits that no longer have any effect on the tree (you can run git rebase after to trim the merge commits if you want). --msg-filter adds information about where the commit came from (don't forget to change <source-repo>!)

More complex filters are possible. Have a look at the man page for git-filter-branch. Note that while you could use the commit message filter to neuter commit hook keywords like CCMAIL, it is better to ask a sysadmin to disable the commit hooks temporarily while you push.